Vegetables grown in outer space as nutritious as ones grown on earth

Are vegetables grown in outer space as nutritious as ones grown on earth? The Journal Frontiers in Plant Science reports that Red Romaine Lettuce grown aboard the International Space Station. Has the same nutritional properties as the ones grown on earth
And does not contain any of the disease-causing microbes and is safe to eat.

Researchers from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, which included Christina Khodadad grew a crop of lettuce for 33 to 56 days, undisturbed inside a special growth chamber nicknamed Veggie. The crew ate part of the crop while the rest was deep-frozen and sent back to earth for testing. Astronauts in space survive by eating packaged processed foods.

Fresh foods could give additional potassium and vitamins like K, B1, and C. which packaged food lack. Growing their own greens could be beneficial for long term missions like the Artemis-III, a mission that will take humans to the moon's south pole. Or an even longer mission to Mars planned towards the latter end of this decade.

Photo Credits: NASA